Donnell Pugh apears in court for a calendar call at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas Thursday, December 1, 2011.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 | 1:20 p.m.
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A man who pleaded guilty to shooting two people — killing one of them — last year in a Las Vegas apartment complex was sentenced to life imprisonment Tuesday in Clark County District Court.
Judge Douglas Herndon ruled that Donnell Patrick Pugh, 28, would have to serve a minimum of 20 years years before being eligible for parole.
Pugh pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for fatally shooting Charles McCullough, a bus driver for the Clark County School District, and for shooting and injuring Jessica Green on Jan. 15, 2011, at the Evergreen Apartments in the 5400 block of West Cheyenne Avenue.
Metro Police said when they responded to reports of gunfire at the apartment complex, they found McCullough dead from multiple gunshot wounds and Green suffering from a gunshot wound on her foot.
According to Pugh’s attorney, Peter S. Christiansen, Pugh thought that McCullough had burglarized his apartment twice before the shooting incident.
Christiansen read a letter that Pugh had written to the judge saying that he was deeply remorseful for the shooting and regretted it. Christiansen said that before the shooting, McCullough and Pugh had exchanged words and that McCullough and Green came down from the apartment to talk to Pugh when the shooting took place.
Nine members of McCullough’s family came to the sentencing, each holding up one or two photos of McCullough. Joyce Williams, McCullough’s aunt, told the judge that he had recently come to Las Vegas from New York and began working as a bus driver with her in the school district.
The victim's sister, Charlize McCullough, said her brother didn’t deserve to be killed and asked the judge to impose the “full penalty of law.”
In handing down the sentence, Herndon told Pugh that “you can’t take a gun into an argument” and use it.
The judge told Pugh his sentence on the second-degree murder charge was for life, with 10 years before he would be eligible for parole on that charge. The judge also added a consecutive sentence of from 60 months to 240 months for using a deadly weapon.
Herndon also handed down a consecutive sentence of from 60 to 240 months for the attempted murder charge. He gave Pugh credit for already serving 474 days in jail.
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